The Anthropolist-Designer

I’m a facilitator, researcher, and designer. Previously a recipient of Fast Company’s Top 10 Ideas in Politics and Policy, I have worked extensively with artists, designers, urban planners, policy makers, community-based researchers, and scholars from around the world to better engage audiences with efforts related to reimagining ecological and human futures. Most recently, I served as the first Human Rights and Regenerative Design Fellow with the More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program and Future of Rights and Governance (FORGE) Program at NYU School of Law Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. 

In Toronto, I collaborate with Monumental Projects in support of community-based  research and design works that inform emerging policies, upcoming urban developments, and the arts sector. In these projects, community conversations and art-making are often central to the collaborative research and storytelling process. With my colleague Zahra Ebrahim (Co-Founder of Monumental Projects), I am currently researching, writing, and creating around the concept of "more than human-centred design" (learn more at beyondhcd.com).

I am passionate about facilitating meaningful participation, and developing tools and materials that elevate all levels of experience (somatic, visual, intellectual), while introducing regenerative and reparative concepts and practices into the worlds of design, education, and policy.

I hold a Master of Global Affairs (MGA) from University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Interdisciplinary & International Studies from University of Arizona.

Read the full story on #UXRConf Preview: Meet Ariel Sim

A Q&A on her career journey and what researchers can learn from design

March 2019

How did you get started in design research?

I wouldn’t call it an accident, but we definitely weren’t using the words “design research” and “user experience” where I started my career.

I worked for the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) right out of university. I went to the University of Arizona and had finished an interdisciplinary degree with a mix of course work in business, anthropology, political science, creative arts, entrepreneurship, and economics. Anthropology spoke to me the most of all the disciplines I worked with in my degree and I did most of my thesis through the School of Anthropology.

While in school and then for a few years after, I was a research technician at BARA. We did something called community action research or community-based participatory research. In that model, anthropologists don’t observe and record observations about culture — they participate inside of communities and help to create interventions that lift those communities up. There’s a big focus on agency and on understanding the very specific contexts and dynamics of a community before coming up with solutions (sounds a lot like human-centred design, doesn’t it?).

Read the full article here.

Past Awards Include

Fast Company Top 10 World Changing Idea: Politics & Policy (2020)

The Artist

A lifelong student of the arts, my practice incorporates multiple mediums, including photography, sketching, poetry, music, and dancing. Currently developing a series of poems and sketches called the art of decomposing, the series loosely explores decomposition as life’s next great adventure. I am a passionate believer in art-making as a tool for facilitation and community dialogue.